Police detaining women wearing clothes with “Buddha” imagery

A Buddhist Monk and bystanders accosted a woman wearing a sari they said had Buddha images in Trincomalee on Thursday/Twitter.com

Women’s activists are angry and exasperated by police detaining
women wearing sarees or dresses with the images of Hindu Deities on them.

Activists say there has been a rash of such incidents recently. Some of the images, particularly of the Hindu deity Krishna, resemble images of the Buddha and that has led to some of the detentions, these activists say.

On Thursday a woman wearing a sari at the Trincomalee bus
stand with what appeared to be images of the Buddha was handed over to police
by a crowd allegedly incited by a Buddhist Monk who had arrived at the scene.

Social activist Garikalan tweeted the incident saying the
woman was “intimidated by the crowd.”

A woman who was waiting at #Trinco bus-stand for #Jaffna bus was arrested by police today claiming that the saree she was wearing consist of Buddha;woman & her two daughters were taken into police station when locals led by a Buddhist monk protested publicly & intimidated her.1/ pic.twitter.com/KgyLcYoEzj

Deputy Minister Ranjan Ramanayake posted a video of the incident on his Facebook page.

An eyewitness, free-lance journalist M L Aswer told
RepublicNext that he heard the Monk calling the Officer in Charge of the
Trincomalee Police station and reporting the woman.

“Then a police truck arrived and the woman, her daughter and
son were taken away by the officers,” Aswer said.

The Police Media spokesman’s office in Colombo confirmed to
RepublicNext that a woman wearing such a sari had been detained and released
with a warning.

Such incidents are being reported from various parts of the
North and East, Indumathie Hariharathamodaran of the Women’s Rights group Viluthu
based in Trincomalee told RepublicNext.

“It has become a fashion now for women to wear these sarees with murals of Hindu deities,” she said. “Some of the images look like pictures of Lord Buddha,” she added.

It has become fashionable in India to wear these mural-bearing sarees/devotional.com

These sarees have become fashionable in India and many women
wear them for special occasions such as weddings, she said.

She added that there are many Hindus also who object to
women wearing these sarees, depending on the deity depicted on the garment.

Colombo-based Velayuthan Jayachithra, another activist said that she too has encountered incidents where women have complained that police have taken action against them for wearing these sarees or kurtas with similar images.

“One woman was taken to the Wellawatte police station and
detained and her husband had to bring her another sari to wear,” she told
RepublicNext.

Dr Sepali Kottegoda of Women and Media commenting to
RepublicNext asked under what authority the police were acting in this manner. “What
law is there for them to act, as the fundamental rights of these women are
being violated, “she said.

The Hindu quoted Human Rights lawyer J C Weliamuna as saying that “only defaming a religion is a criminal offence. This is ridiculous.”